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Commentary

OTT Viewing Growing Overall TV Viewership

Consumers who stream over-the-top video in addition to linear TV are adding to the total video viewership pie, according to data from Samsung Ads. Samsung Ads will release the results of its
research today during Advertising Week New York.

Samsung Ads based its research on first-party data from some 32 million Samsung smart TVs in U.S. households. These smart TVs not only
allow for inputs from connected TV devices, set-top boxes and gaming consoles, but also come built in with access to Samsung’s app store, which is a robust OTT ecosystem in and of
itself.

“What we are seeing is that the launching of these apps has grown by 200% since 2011,” Tom Fochetta, VP of advertising sales at Samsung Ads, tells Video
Insider. “Now we are seeing these OTT users launch these apps nearly every other day. It is becoming part of their video content mix; consumers are seamlessly going back and forth between
smart TV, a gaming console, smartphone, tablets, and consuming this video through multiple touch-points.”

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Of course, while OTT video may be the hot topic in the media
industry, traditional linear TV remains king of the castle -- for now. Samsung’s data found that 81% of its smart TVs still tune in to linear TV.

Samsung also focuses on an
audience that it calls “Total TV Watchers” -- consumers who watch linear TV and OTT video. Samsung found that they watch on average 75 hours of linear TV per month, and open streaming apps
140 times per month. They watch on average 11% more OTT video than the average viewer.

“They actually are making room in their media mix for more media content,”
Fochetta says. “It is not a zero-sum game.”

Ultimately, Samsung hopes that the research it presents challenges some misconceptions about TV, and how advertisers and media
buyers approach their planning.

“The definition of TV is changing. I feel like the industry tends to bifurcate it, it is either linear or OTT, but it is not that simple,”
Fochetta says. “These users are going seamlessly back and forth between many different sources. What this means for agencies and brands is that they need to transform their media plan, to buy
around delivering a better experience for the consumer. And they have to reach them throughout this media consumption journey.”